


Female-Presenting Frankensteins

by girlinstory



Category: Kill la Kill (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Found Family, Inappropriate Bubble Tea Humor, Love Confessions, Moonshine, PTSD, Post-Finale, Sibiling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28879899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlinstory/pseuds/girlinstory
Summary: The Mankanshokus were out of town, attending the catered funeral of a distant stranger. Ryoku hadn’t wanted to go with them, but as soon as they left, she didn’t want to be alone. Silence was harder to bear these days. She ended up talking to her left boob a lot.
Relationships: Kiryuuin Satsuki & Matoi Ryuuko, Mankanshoku Mako/Matoi Ryuuko
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

Ryoku shaved her head.

It was mostly because the Mankanshokus' new apartment had mirrors you could actually see yourself in, and in the early days after Senketsu's sacrifice, the daily sight of her Frankensteinian threads was an unwelcome one. Well, not daily. Just the days she got out of bed.

It was also because Ryoku was tired of not being able to wear pink. Yeah, pink. She contained multitudes.

She made Sukuyo do it. The Mankanshokus saved money by their own hair, including Mako's bowl-cut, which Ryoku had once used as a substitute for a circular protractor in math class. Also, if someone's Mom shaved your head, it didn't count as a breakdown, Kiryūin.

The booze, Ryuko didn't have an excuse for. Technically, it also came from Sukuyo, but she didn't know about it. The Mankanshokus were out of town, attending the catered funeral of a distant stranger. Ryoku hadn't wanted to go with them, but as soon as they left, she didn't want to be alone. Silence was harder to bear these days. She ended up talking to her left boob a lot.

Which was maybe why Ryoku had agreed to drink tea with Satsuki in the morning, even though she could barely kick off the covers on days she didn't have a hangover.

Which was maybe why Ryoku had decided to drink approximately all of Sukuyo's "cooking" sake. 

She left an apology note by the empty bottle and curled up underneath her futon in the futile hopes that the Mankanshokus would take pity on her when they got home.

They didn't get home until after midnight. Something about a tiger cage that Ryuko hadn't even attempted to understand. Only Sukuyo noticed the sake. She didn't say anything, which might have been because she couldn't get a word in edgewise. She did pour Ryuko a big glass of water.

Eventually, everyone retired to the rooms they only shared with one other family member. Upon the sudden offer of subsidized housing from a Kiryūin Conglomerate subsidiary of a subsidiary that wasn't lousy with lawsuits mostly because no one made the connection, they had paired off without discussion. Sukuyo and Barazō. Matarō and Guts. Ryoku and Mako.

Ryoku, now on top of the futon, was half-liddedly watching Mako spin an orphaned desk chair in hypnotic circles, while she whisper-shouted about some sort of confusion involving chopsticks.

Ryoku started crying

It wasn't the kind of tears she always teased Mako about, the ones that made Ghibli tears look like Satsuki-Senpai's Ultra Thin Liquid Eyeliner. They were hot and thin, like alcohol, like her blood when it boiled, and they burned twice as bad.

Mako froze in the middle of some elaborate gesture Ryoku couldn't even begin to reverse engineer. "Are you crying?"

"No, I'm not," Ryoku told her, before hiding her face in the nearest pillow.

"Yes, you are."

"Nnmnmnt," Ryoku told the pillow.

Mako tried to pick up the pillow, but Ryoku wouldn't let go. When the dust settled, Ryoku was still facedown on the pillow, but the pillow was on Mako's stomach. She was willing to accept a draw.

"Why won't you let me see you?" Mako whisper-whispered.

"Bcsmnmsss." Ryoku sighed into the pillow, which sounded exactly like Guts farting. With a great deal of effort, she climbed to her knees.

"Because-" She picked up the pillow and held it in front of her face. "Because I'm a mess. I'm a gross, phlegmy, hungover mess. I'm a crap freeloader and a crap friend. Okay?"

Mako reached for the pillow, but she didn't try to lower it. She just put her hands over Ryoku's. "You are not! You're my best friend!"

Ryoku huffed. "I can't even get out of futon most days. You deserve better than me."

"But you're all I want!" Mako was whisper-shouting again. "You know how greedy I am, Ryoku-chan. Well, this time, all I want is you!"

Ryoku would not admit to making any choked noises at that. "But I'm-"

"Traumatized?"

Ryoku did make a choked noise at that, but only because she choked on her own spit.

"You just need some help, Ryoku-chan. We all have our problems. That's why we have to help each other!"

"Not like this. I don't want to make you…" Ryoku couldn't find the right word, so she settled for, "sad."

"You think I don't get sad?" Mako smiled, but it was a smile that lent some credence to her words. "Before you, all my friends were maladaptive daydreams. I try to stay positive, because when I cry, Dad has to hook up an IV. Remember the first time I cried like that? After Fight Club? You didn't say anything about it, because we were both a little preoccupied with my attempted murder, but after that, you started carrying around a washcloth instead of a handkerchief! If you can put up with all that, I can definitely deal with your lil' ole' PTSD. I don't even have to carry anything special, which is good, because my bra is usually full of snacks. Oh, do you want a snack? I saved some from the f- Oh! Oh..."

It was only then that Ryoku realized she had kissed Mako.

It had seemed so natural. Ryoku had lowered the pillow, and Mako's face had been there, so she'd kissed it.

Before Ryoku could die, Mako got her voice back (it never took her very long). "Oh, thank, goodness!"

"Huh?"

"I was so worried! I asked you on a date, and you said, 'It's a date,' but people say, 'It's a date,' about things that aren't dates. Well, they are dates, but not that kind of date, and then we went on the date, and it wasn't that kind of date, because your sister was there, and then Gamagōri was there, and he asked me on a date, and it was that kind of date, and I said no, but you didn't say anything, and I was so worried!"

"I- Well-" Ryoku couldn't do anything but stare at Mako, and for once, it didn't do anything to slow her heart rate down. "You didn't tell him we were on a date!"

"You didn't tell Satsuki-Sama!"

"I was nervous! And-" Ryoku put the pillow back up. "And you kept talking about shopping for cute clothes, so my… PTSD was taking the form of paranoid delusions that you were actually Nui Harime in disguise."

"What?" Mako's eyes were wider than ever when Ryoku lowered the pillow.

"Well, why were you so interested in clothes all of a sudden, huh?!"

"I was nervous too." Mako gave a little shrug. It was so understated compared to her usual Italian-matriarch gestures. "You've never seen me except in my PJs, and my uniform, and my Goku uniform, and-"

"Mako."

"I was worried you'd never seen me like _that_."

"Like _that_?"

"I love you," said Mako. "I wasn't sure at first, because you were my first friend, but then I made other friends! Thanks to you! That's when I realized, 'Those aren't friend-feelings, Mankanshoku. Those are waifu-feelings.' So I asked you out, but you didn't kiss me, or buy me any more presents than usual, or anything! It was your turn!"

"My... turn?" Ryoku was starting to feel like a damn Myna bird.

"Mako had asked Ryuko-chan out, so it was Ryuko-chan's turn to be brave."

"You can't expect me to know that! I've never done this before!"

Mako looked as disdainful as Ryuko had ever seen her. "Neither have I, but geez, Ryuko-chan, TV is only 100 yen per ten minutes. Now you're supposed to kiss me to shut me up. Don't you know anything?"

"I know that trope is super misogynistic, and-"

Mako kissed her to shut her up. Ryuko decided it probably wasn't misogynistic if they were both girls, or like, female-presenting Frankensteins. That was her last coherent thought for a while, which might have explained her linguistic impediments upon finally pulling back for air.

"I do um, see you like _that_. I'm just not so good at, you know-"

"Communicating?"

Ryoku huffed some more. "Doesn't mean you have to do it for me."

"I know I don't have to," said Mako. "I want to!"

She rubbed a hand over Ryoku's scalp, something she had done often as the stubble started growing in. Ryoku's red patch had become a polka dot. Mako poked it gently and whispered, "Beep."

"Beep yourself," Ryuko grumbled.

"You don't wanna' help?" It turned out Mako had a smile Ryuko hadn't seen yet.

"I-"

"Just kidding. I'm not gonna' take advantage of you while you're all tipsy."

"M'not tipsy. I'm hungover."

"Not yet, you're not. You know Mom brews that sake herself?"

"Extra strength?"

"To save money!"

"I hate your family," Ryuko grumbled. "But uh… I guess I love you too."

Mako clapped her hands together. "You always were a fast study."

"You take that back." Ryuko yawned. "I've never studied a day in my life."

Mako flopped down on the futon next to Ryuko, who could smell something vaguely fishy coming from her bra. "Wanna' cuddle?"

"I might throw up on you," Ryuko warned her. 

"Worth it."


	2. Chapter 2

"So why'd'ya chop it off?"

Satsuki took a sip of tea. "I presume you mean my hair?"

Ryoku ran a hand through her own chick fuzz. Mako had convinced her it was soothing. Ryuko was pretty sure it was only soothing when she did it.

"Well, I wasn't talkin' about Mom's head."

Ryuko had expected some fancy-ass tea at the Kiryūin complex, complete with service from Satsuki's (probably human) butler. Instead, Satsuki had taken her to a boba tea place on Odaiba. It wasn't far from their own artificial island, and they could still see what was left of Honnō half-submerged in Tokyo Bay.

"I prefer short hair." Satsuki set her cup on the table. "Wearing it long was Ragyō's preference."

"Then why didn't she grow her own hair out?" asked Ryuko. "Although I guess it might've blinded people. Man, talk about queercoding a villain."

"You misunderstand," said Satsuki. "She liked having a handhold."

Ryoku wondered sometimes if her sister had based the star-patterned Goku uniforms on the strangely astral shape of scar tissue. They had always reminded her of the scar Senketsu bore from his incomplete creation. The ones under Nui Harime's eye cup. The ones on Ragyō's back from her self-experiments with the Life Fibers. Satsuki's scars were not visible on unblemished skin, but what little Ryoku had begun to learn of them led her to believe they were the deepest of all.

Ryoku sucked up a particularly fat lump of tapioca, just to see if the sound would offend Satsuki's sensibilities. It didn't, so she added, "Mmm… Tasty black balls."

Satsuki looked like she would have done a spit take if she was anyone else.

"How do you deal with it?"

"I don't think about it," said Satsuki. "Rather, whenever I do, I stop and have a cup of tea."

"You must spend a lotta' time in the bathroom," Ryoku grumbled. "Doesn't that mean you're just bottling it up and your gonna' explode later? Again?"

"The emotions or the-"

"You know what I meant."

"Perhaps." Satsuki rotated the cup between her hands. "Perhaps by then, I'll be ready to deal with it. Perhaps… if I'm really lucky and I have enough good role models, I'll be ready before then. For now, I drink tea."

"You better not be talking about me."

"I am," said Satsuki. "I am also speaking of my other friends. Gamagōri took Mankanshoku's rejection pretty hard."

"Oh, y- yeah?" Ryoku cursed herself for her newfound stutter. It only happened when she talked about Mako, so about fifty times a day.

"Indeed, but it turns out he was projecting his self-esteem issues onto her. Inamuta is working on his people skills. Jakzure never got over the loss of her monkey."

"Her-"

"You heard me."

"So you expect me to join some circle-jerk with your pals?" Ryoku pushed her chair back. "This better not be some goddamn intervention, Kiryūin. I really hate surprise parties where the surprise is it ain't a party."

"Calm down and drink your balls," said Satsuki. "I have no authority over you. I'm merely offering you resources. The only reason for our disparity of assets is the circumstances of our birth, over which neither of us had any control. Now I do have control of Ragyō's assets, or at least what's left of them. They are sufficient for me to be generous, and I've heard enough of your lectures to know you would never abuse my generosity."

Ryoku huffed, a habit leftover from blowing her bangs out of her eyes.

"If you would simply go through the necessary legal procedures, it would be rightfully yours anyway," said Satsuki.

"Kiryūin Ryoku does have a nice ring to it," said Ryoku, just to see if she was serious.

Satsuki took another sip of tea. "Nicer than Mankanshoku Ryoku?"

Ryoku was pretty sure she could avoid stuttering if she limited her response to one or two words. "Sh- Shut up!"

Satsuki's brow furrowed, her lip quivered, and her Ultra Thin Liquid Eyeliner appeared to be in danger of running. Ryoku was shocked into following her own advice.

"But the articles all said that lighthearted teasing among adult siblings is normal."

"Wh- N-"

Her brow flattened. "Got you."

Ryuko had to picture Mako for ten whole seconds before her heart rate was back to normal. "Shut up."

"No stutter this time, I notice."

Ryoku could feel her face change color to match her scarf, but she kept quiet this time.

Satsuki sighed. "You always were a quick study during battle."

"Since when did lighthearted teasing turn into battle!?"

"We're Kiryūins and Matois. Our family was never going to be normal."

Satsuki glanced out across the water, and Ryoku followed her line of sight. Honnō's remains were less intimidating in the morning light, with Odaiba's ferris wheel segmenting the view. Maybe Mako would ride it with her someday. She had heard you could see Mount Fuji on a clear day.

As if reading her mind, Satsuki said, "I imagine it won't get any more normal with the addition of Mankanshokus."

Ryoku tried to hide her face behind her scarf even though it was just as red. For the first time since shaving her head, she missed having bangs.

"P- p- probably not."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time, they were having tea at the Kiryūin compound. Ryuko wasn't gonna' complain now that she knew her sister had imprinted on a teapot or whatever. She was asking for Satsuki's help, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The unnaturally colored mouse on Isshin’s shoulder is never explained, but I like to think it has something to do with the pink plush mouse next to sleeping baby Ryoku. 
> 
> You can read Marshmallow Goop's fan theories about the mouse here:
> 
> https://theinternetisaweboflies.tumblr.com/post/641048026392231936/im-guessing-the-pink-mouse-died-in-the-house
> 
> You can see a picture of the mouse described in my fanfic here:
> 
> https://theinternetisaweboflies.tumblr.com/post/640987718763134976/vintage-1966-kamar-pink-plush-mouse-from-japan

"Do you think it's… safe?" asked Ryuko.

She and Satsuki wore matching expressions of wariness as they regarded the cage sitting on the table in front of them.

Mako was feeding its inhabitant crumbs from her scone. 

This time, they were having tea at the Kiryūin compound. Ryuko wasn't gonna' complain now that she knew her sister had imprinted on a teapot or whatever. She was asking for Satsuki's help, after all.

Ryuko had been viciously attacked earlier that day by a small pink rodent.

It just kept coming, no matter how many times she stepped on it, punched it, kicked it, or insulted its mother. Mako's sole contribution had been feeding it, which was actually pretty helpful. Without Sukuyo's croquettes, they never would have gotten it in the cage, which was actually a large strainer and a whole lot of duct tape.

"We caught it before it could get me, but it looked like it was gonna' take a chunk out of my throat," said Ryuko.

"Perhaps you should have let it," Satsuki said contemplatively.

"You wanna' go, Kiryūin?!"

"Calm yourself, Matoi. I simply meant that we should see what happens if it consumes your blood. It's clearly made of Life Fibers."

"It- What?" Ryuko squinted at the mouse, which had been squeaking obscenities at her ever since she hardballed it into the strainer. "It is?"

"Have you ever seen a pink mouse before?"

"Yeah," said Ryuko. "Is that not normal?"

"Where? Wait. If you didn't know it was made of Life Fibers, then why did you come to me?"

Ryuko shrugged. "Exterminators cost money?"

Satsuki rubbed her forehead. "You don't hire an exterminator for one mouse unless you live in a cart- Wait. Where have you seen a _pink_ mouse?"

"Dad had one. It rode around on his shoulder. He- Holy shit. This is Dad's mouse?"

"It's not a mouse," said Satsuki. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Your father must have created it as some sort of prototype for Senketsu. It may have been in hibernation since Soichiro's death, or simply… trying not to get stepped on."

Ryuko squinted at the mouse for another minute before rolling up her sleeves. "Let's do this."

She bit a hole in the duct tape and held out her hand. The mouse climbed aboard with an expression on its face that reminded her a lot of Satsuki. Ryuko raised it to eye level, but no higher.

"You better not have the plague." She raised her middle finger. The mouse grabbed hold with both of its little hands, as if it were a hoagie, and bit.

With a small pop, it transformed into a slightly sluttier looking mouse.

"What the hell!?" said Ryuko.

"It's cute!" said Mako.

"Why the boobs though!?"

"We have to face it." Satsuki rubbed her forehead. "Both of our parents were freaks."

"I knew that 'minimal skin contact' thing was bogus," said Ryuko, unconsciously crossing her arms across her chest. The mouse hopped up onto her shoulder. "That doesn't explain the thigh-highs. I still have ni- Argh!"

"What's wrong?" Mako had hands on her in an instant, somehow soothing the pain, even though Ryuko couldn't tell where it was coming from. No, wait. It was her head. It was definitely her-

_Soichiro didn't become Isshin, the day he left Ragyō._

_There was an old family home where they would be safe until he could complete his work. On the way there, he purchased some necessities for the infant. In a fit of sentimentality unfamiliar to him, he visited a secondhand store and acquired some toys._

_He already was getting dangerously attached and would have to send her away at the earliest possible convenience. It wouldn't do to think too long or hard about what he was planning to put her through._

_The only toy that seemed to be of interest to the child was an uniquely unattractive pink mouse that looked like it had been designed in the sixties. A brief diversion from his Life Fiber research informed him that it was in fact Kamar Product #2602 "Sonja" the mouse from 1966._

_Soichiro created his first prototype based on that mouse, and that was the day he became Isshin. In a way, they shared a birthday._

_He couldn't start with something so dangerous as clothing. A lab rat seemed appropriate, or at least a lab mouse. A rat would likely frighten the infant anyway._

_Ryuko was even more enamoured of her new friend "Mausu" than she had been of the toy._ _It kept her entertained while Isshin worked, although it often joined him after she had fallen asleep, as if curious about its embryonic sibling._

"Ryuko-chan!" Mako's voice was slowly getting louder, until it was very loud indeed and right in Ryuko's ear. "Come back to me!"

"I'm back, I'm back. Stop crying, I only brought one washcloth."

"Are you alright?" asked Satsuki.

"I'm fine." Ryuko rubbed her head. At least she was still standing, even if it was only because she was being supported by Mako's boobs. "I think it… shared a memory with me. Senketsu never did that."

"It's been whatever it is for longer than Senketsu was," Satsuki said as gently as anyone could say something like that. "It might have picked up a few tricks."

"It couldn't pick up Japanese?" Ryuko sighed. "Fine. So Dad made Alien Mickey. You know more about Life Fibers than I do. You think it's safe?"

Satsuki took a long sip of her tea, as if buying herself time to think. "Well, it's not made of normal Life Fibers. If it's a prototype for Senketsu, then he's our closest control, and you knew Senketsu better than anyone."

"So it's safe," Ryuko said firmly.

"If not, we can always construct a rending mousetrap."

"Hey, be nicer to-" Mako's eyes went even wider than normal. "Oh, my god, Ryuko-chan! She doesn't have a name!"

"Well, I'm not gonna' call her Mausu, and I sure as shit ain't callin' her Sonja." Satsuki's impressive brow was furrowed, but Mako was nodding along, always ready to agree with Ryuko. "I'm thinkin' Senchi."

"Clever," said Satsuki. "So it's written with the same kanji as Senketsu, but the pronunciation for blood is-"

"You named her Centimeter!" said Mako.

Ryuko aimed a finger gun at her. "Bingo."

Satsuki silenced it. "You are both children."

"She needs a name of her own. She's not a replacement for Senketsu. Nothing could do that, but… it does feel a little like having a part of him with me." Ryuko placed a hand over her heart. "Like the twin he ate in the womb or something."

"Aw," said Mako.

"Horrifying children," said Satsuki.

"Would you care for more tea?" asked Satsuki's butler, who had been a silently sentry behind her chair the entire time. Ryuko had forgotten he was there, and she was pretty hyperaware of her surroundings these days. No way he was human. Then again, who was she to talk?

_Isshin never ate while he was working, mostly because when he was working, he forgot to eat, but also because he didn't know how to get marmalade out of Life Fibers. Most of his-_

"I get it!" Ryuko shouted, accidentally interrupting Satsuki extolling the virtues of wet leaves or whatever. Satsuki and her butler looked politely startled, but Mako was nodding along again. Ryuko blushed. "Uh… Could Senchi get another scone?"


End file.
